Beebox

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts (folgt noch) In 2007, after baking my way through all my old German bread baking books and Peter Reinhart's " The Bread Baker's Apprentice ", I checked for more bread formulas in the internet. In German food magazine Essen & Trinken , one recipe, featuring beer - always a plus! - caught my eye and piqued my interest. The beer was not only used to hydrate and flavor the dough, but, also, cooked into a mash, to feed the starter ! At that time I had the opportunity to chat with Peter Reinhart in an online bread baking Q & A, hosted by " Fine Cooking ", and asked him about the boozy, mash-fed starter. He had never heard of such a thing, either. Not only that - there was another oddity: the recipe described stretching and folding the dough into a neat package, at one hour intervals. What an entirely weird concept! I was puzzled and very intrigued. (Later I found out that S & F as a technique was fi...

(For an UPDATED VERSION of this post , go to the new home of my blog at WordPress) When I moved to Maine in 2001 - to get even with the guy who had sold me a houseful of furniture, but refused to give me a discount - I knew I would be in big trouble. And I was right! After two days my stomach started complaining, and my brain kept sending "gag" signals, when I walked the supermarket aisles and encountered nothing but shelf after shelf of "Wonderbreads". Poking one of those proudly-called rye, multigrain, oat nut, or wheat breads with my finger, I found no resistance. I could squeeze them through their plastic bags, and they would spring right back to their original size when I let go. Even toasted, they retained their squishyness and would not support butter or jam without getting soft and soggy. Eating two warm meals a day was another thing my stomach refused to accept. German families usually have bread and cold cuts either for lunch or for dinner. ...

Hier geht's zur deutschen Version dieses Posts When I - driven from a real "Breaking Bad Bread" experience - challenged my baking buddies from The Fresh Loaf , Facebook and several congenial blogs to create a " Bread for the Knight with the Iron Hand ", I promised myself to try all 30 loaves over time. One of those congenial blogs is Britta's Brot vom Niederrhein - Bread from the Lower Rhine. Britta, 35-year old process engineer and mother of two, named her blog after the lower Rhine region of North Rhine-Westphalia/Germany, where she lives and works. Britta: "Others knit to relax, I bake!" "It is pretty here, prettier than many believe. Industrial culture has its charm, the view from a heap to the blast furnaces, chimneys, and the Rhine with its many green meadows and sheep is really pretty." The Lower Rhine with its industrial culture has its own charm - coal mine Zollern in Dortmund Idyllic contrast to heaps and chimneys: sheep grazi...

After missing the ABC-Bakers' May challenge - I made the Brown Butter Banana Bread , but went on my trip to Germany before I could post it - the June project, Tender Loving Crackle Cookies came just right to cure my baking withdrawal symptoms. Three weeks without touching a mixer or kneading a dough! I rarely bake cookies other than around Christmas - except, the famous NY Times Best Chocolate Chip Cookies''. The crackled cookies looked really attractive, so I decided to give them a try. Maine's own Allen's Coffee Brandy To enhance the chocolate flavor, I added 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder , and, being a Mainer, for good measure, threw in another 1/2 teaspoon of Allen's Coffee Flavored Brandy . Otherwise I didn't change the recipe. Christina's cookies are perfectly risen small mounds - mine, alas, turned from nice little balls into this: Flounders! They spread like flounders, especially the ones I shaped last!   Who was to blame? I found the answer on...